
James Stephenson
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1889-04-13
Day of Death
1941-07-29 (52 years old)
Place of Birth
Selby, Yorkshire, England, UK
James Stephenson
Biography
British stage actor James Stephenson made his film debut quite late in life, at the age of 49, in 1937, making four pictures that year. Warner Bros. got a glimpse of this distinguished gent and signed him to a contract where he indulged himself in urbane villainy. Proving a reliable support in such films as Boy Meets Girl (1938), You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and the classic adventure The Sea Hawk (1940), he was entrusted by director William Wyler and mega-star Bette Davis to play the sympathetic role of the family attorney Howard Joyce in The Letter (1940). It was the role of a lifetime and he didn't let them down for he earned an Oscar nomination in the process. Stephenson was soon on a roll, playing the titular sleuth in Calling Philo Vance (1940) and was first-billed in the above-average "B" movie Shining Victory (1941) when he died suddenly in 1941 of a heart attack at the rather young age of 53.
Date of Death: 29 July 1941, Pacific Palisades, California (heart attack)
Known For
Acting
(1941)
Flight from Destiny
as Dr. Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens
(1941)
Shining Victory
as Dr. Paul Venner
(1941)
International Squadron
as Squadron Leader Charles Wyatt
(1940)
The Letter
as Howard Joyce
(1940)
The Sea Hawk
as Abbott
(1940)
Calling Philo Vance
as Philo Vance
(1940)
A Dispatch from Reuters
as Carew
(1940)
Wolf of New York
as Hiram Rogers
(1940)
South of Suez
as Inspector Thornton
(1940)
Murder in the Air
as Joe Garvey
(1940)
River's End
as McDowell
(1939)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
as Sir Thomas Egerton
(1939)
Beau Geste
as Major Henri de Beaujolais
(1939)
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
as British Military Intelligence Agent
(1939)
On Trial
as Gerald Trask
(1939)
The Old Maid
as Jim Ralston
(1939)
King of the Underworld
as Bill Stevens
(1939)
The Adventures of Jane Arden
as Dr. George Vanders
(1939)
We Are Not Alone
as Sir William Clintock
(1939)
Sons of Liberty
as Colonel Tillman
(1939)
Secret Service of the Air
as Jim Cameron
(1939)
Devil's Island
as Col. Armand Lucien
(1939)
Espionage Agent
as Dr. Anton Rader
(1939)
The Monroe Doctrine
as Senor De La Torre
(1939)
Torchy Blane in Chinatown
as Dr. Mansfield
(1939)
Wanted by Scotland Yard
as Fingers
(1938)
Mr. Satan
as Tim Garnett
(1938)
White Banners
as Thomas Bradford
(1938)
Boy Meets Girl
as Major Thompson
(1938)
Nancy Drew… Detective
as Challon
(1938)
When Were You Born
as Phillip Corey
(1938)
Cowboy from Brooklyn
as Prof. Landis
(1938)
Heart of the North
as Stephen Gore
(1938)
The Dark Stairway
as Inspector Clarke
(1937)
You Live and Learn
as Sam Brooks
(1937)
(1937)
Transatlantic Trouble
as Lewis